Kromdraai-Claerhout
Highly Collectible-Autographed by Frans Claerhout with an original sketch of boy with a cat in his arms on the title page as well a tract with original written words inscribed on it, words being "Versoening", "Reconciliation" and autographed by Claerhout and dated 1990 left inside the book.
Kromdraai-Claerhout
Hardcover, ISBN 9780908355242
Publisher: EMU, 1982
Used - Very Good. Claerhout has signed the book below a half-page sketch drawn by him in ink. A very fine copy indeed that appears very little used and presents handsomely in cellophane. Internally clean and tightly bound.
Father Frans Claerhout, acclaimed artist, priest and humanitarian was born on 15 February 1919 in Pittem, western Belgium. After completing his studies, he immigrated to South Africa in 1946 as a Catholic missionary. He was initially posted to the Orange Free State, where he worked among the black people living in and around Bloemfontein. He served primarily in Bloemfontein, Thabanchu and his beloved Tweespruit mission station.
Although Claerhout did not receive formal instruction in painting, his charming style appealed to art lovers and investors alike and he held his first solo exhibition in Johannesburg in 1961.
His artworks - characterised by their warm colours, thick impasto paint, exaggerated forms, humour and compassion - were exhibited widely in South Africa, as well as in Belgium, Canada, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. His subject matter consisted of people and animals that he encountered in his daily life. His donkey depictions are particularly well known. He primarily worked with oil paints on canvas or rough surfaces, but he also experimented widely with other media e.g. modeling in clay and wood-carving, wall-paintings, monotypes and linocuts, stained glass set in concrete windows and a prolific stream of drawings in charcoal, pen-and-ink or crayon. http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/sa-artist-father-frans-claerhout-born
